The pictures and information contained herein show a 2-pound bivy tent that I made and use on my summer trips. The weight roughly breaks down as follows:

Tent = about 12 ounces

Fly = about 12 ounces

Poles = about 8 ounces

Requires 6 stakes which are not included in the weight above.

FEATURES:

Warm - Size wise the inner is closer to a bivy than a tent…. hence the name. It is just big enough for me to lie down and sit up in. This small size and the full coverage fly make this a very warm tent. With a few minutes of activity I can raise the inside temps to the 60-70 degrees F range, even though it is hovering around freezing outside. During the night, when I'm still, the inside temps are typically about 15 degrees warmer than the outside temps.

Versatile - The fly is cut much larger than the inner tent. This gives a lot of room for cooking and storage of gear. Half of the fly area can be accessed through the large side door. All of the fly area can be accessed buy unhooking the inner tent from the fly.

DIMENSIONS:

Inner tent is 18" wide, 6 feet long and 3 feet high with a pointed top. The sides bulge out a bit when I'm inside so it's about 2 to 2 ½ feet wide at the midpoint.

Fly is 2 feet wide all the way up to the ridge line. Vestibules on each side widen it to about 5 feet. It is about 8 ½ feet long and 42 inches high.

MATERIALS:

Inner tent uses 1.5 ounce uncoated ripstop with a tyvek floor.

Fly uses 1.5 coated ripstop (about 2 ounces total weight).

I made one of the fly's vestibules out of tyvek to see how it worked. Seems to work fine but won't be as durable and long lasting as the fly.

THE BIVY TENT:

Fly (end view)

Fly (front view)

Front View (tent & fly open)

Tent (front view)

Tent (end view)

Front View (tent unhooked from fly)

SUGGESTION:

You can create one of these systems using a ready made fly and poles from most tents and a bivy of your choice. The key advantage to my bivy is the headroom. It only takes a couple ounces of added material to make a bivy into a 3-ft high pointed topped bivy. It is well worth it, in my opinion, because you can sit up.